Tuberculosis remains amongst the world's great public health challenges. Although drugs for treatment of tuberculosis (TB) have been available for nearly 50 years, TB remains a global health crisis, killing 2-3 million people annually and for a global economic toll of $12 billion each year. The recent emergence of multi drug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis resulted in a major setback in the global fight against TB. The prevailing situation is made worse by the continuous increase in the number of immune-compromised patients living with HIV who are more prone to TB and other bacterial infections. No new drugs have been developed specifically against mycobacteria since the 1960s and only within the last few years have some promising drug candidates emerged. Thus, more than ever, there is an urgent need to develop new anti-TB drugs to combat the spread of TB, particularly in its hard-to-kill multidrug-resistant, persistent and latent forms.
There are two basic approaches to develop a new drug for TB:    i) Synthesis of new analogues, modifications or derivatives of existing compounds for shortening and improving TB treatment.    ii) Searching for novel structures, that the TB organism has never been presented with before, for the treatment of MDR-TB.
Indoline-2,3-dione (isatin) derivatives have been reported to show antitubercular activities, see M. A. Hussein, T. Aboul-Fadl, A. Hussein, Bull. Pharm. Sci. Assiut Univ. 28 (2005) 131-136; L. Ballell, R. A. Field, K. Duncan, R. J. Young, Antimicrob. Agens Chemother. 49 (2005) 2153-2163. Isatin is considered as a versatile lead molecule for designing of potential anti tubercular agents.